Setting up a 4G router to work with pfSense
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Hey everyone,
I’m new to networking and I need a bit of assistance. I have a 4G router that I want to use as a modem and then have that plugged into the WAN port on my miniPC (running pfSense). I have a wireless access point connected to the miniPC though LAN2.The purpose of this build is to have a simple wireless network that I can take to small gatherings. I plan to setup a captive portal to limit access. I won’t need to set up VLANs or subdivide the network, I just need to have a wireless network that multiple people can connect to.
I have confirmed that the 4g router works but there isn’t an option to turn it into bridge mode. I want this to simply provide internet and have pfSense act as the router. I have tried multiple configurations but have not been able to access any external websites from the network. The dashboard on pfSense shows LAN and WAN input and outputs but when trying to reach something like google I can’t get connected.
For the current setup I have set NAT and DHCP off on the 4G router. I have set my WAN to DHCP on the pfSense box and have the LAN IP set to 192.168.1.100 with the DHCP range set to 192.168.1.109 to 192.168.1.245.My questions are:
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What settings should I specify on both the 4G router and through pfSense to get this to work. Specifically curious on what IP addresses are bed to use for both the 4G router and pfSense.
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Are there any best practices that I am not following?
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Any advice or tips you could give me that would help me in my situation?
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A double NAT setup should work fine but the biggest thing to watch out for is that you can't have the same subnet on WAN and LAN. So make sure the 4G router isn't also using 192.168.1.0/24. If it is change is or the pfSense LAN to some other subnet.
Steve
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@owenv What is the make model of the 4G router?
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Hey @chpalmer , It's a TL-MR6400.
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Thank you @stephenw10. So with this setup I would still need to turn DHCP off for the 4G router and set up pfSense to handle this?
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Both could be DHCP. The 4G router would be handing a DHCP lease to the pfSense WAN. pfSense would be handing DHCP leases to the clients on it's LAN.
The link between the pfSense WAN and 4G router could use static addressing instead but I would use DHCP initially.
Steve
